My Yearlong Around the World Itinerary

Last updated on January 6, 2025 by Shannon

When I look back at my first yearlong trip around the world in 2008-2010, I’m in awe of many of the places I had the privilege to visit and the honor to witness on that whirlwind itinerary.

I could have never known this:

After visiting 21 countries in 15 months on my round-the-world itinerary, I would go on to travel for ten more years, visiting 70+ countries and living in several of them. I traveled with my niece. And then with my nephews. And again with another teen niece.

Whew. It’s been a long road. I settled in Barcelona in 2018, where I now live in Spain with my toddler son—we continue to embark on world travel adventures.

As my travels continued long after my first round the world travels, for posterity’s sake, these are the highs and lows of my year+ of backpacking solo around the world from 2008 to 2010.

Let’s dive in.

My High-Level Route Around the World

How long? 16 months
How many countries? 21
Which countries, in order: Australia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, India, Nepal, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Czech, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Ireland, the U.S., Mexico, Cuba, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras
Dates of round the world trip: November 4, 2008 – October 2009
How many flights? 17 flights
How many miles?
How many friends joined? Three friends booked tickets and traveled the world with me! A friend joined in Thailand and Laos, my cousin and I spent four months backpacking through India and Nepal together, and my friend Jenn joined for Italy and Croatia.

Australia: November 4 – January 6

My decision to start in Australia mostly stemmed from the fact that I was living in Los Angeles at the time. I booked a one-way ticket from LA to Sydney in June and then spent the next five months planning my RTW trip and downsizing my life.

My RTW trip started with a long trek across the Pacific on November 4, 2008. As a newbie to round the world travel, I landed in Sydney without a single friend and feeling a tad lonely.

Luckily, backpackers are a friendly lot. I got my travel legs under me by exploring the Opera House, the Taronga Zoo, and the Botanical Gardens. Deciding to stay in the Blue Mountains was a real highlight, and my penchant for getting incredibly lost at the least convenient moments started here. This would become a recurring theme of the trip because, yeah, I get lost a lot.

Instead of taking the more common route from Sydney to Cairns, I meandered down the coast of New South Wales (because, kangaroos!). I eventually landed in Melbourne, where I couchsurfed for a week with my buddy Row, who had actually couchsurfed with me in LA earlier that year.

Not one to miss the highlights of any new place, I hit up the stunningly pretty Great Ocean Road, and visited the parade of tiny fairy penguins on Phillip Island.

Instead of taking the backpacker bus, I splurged on a quick flight to Alice Springs, which was my launching point to the Australian outback and the iconic Uluru (Ayers Rock), where it rained until our final day at Kings Canyon. Having seen only very brief sunshine in the outback, which is rare, I needed the coast so I jumped a flight to Cairns.

I had obtained my driver’s certification on Catalina Island near LA just so I was ready to spend several days diving the Great Barrier Reef and the UNESCO World Heritage listed Daintree Rainforest. I booked the Greyhound down the east coast of Oz and stopped to sail the Whitsunday Islands for Christmas and to drive across Fraser Island for my 25^th birthday. Both were gorgeous and good fun since I was on tours filled with other backpackers.

I joined up with two German women for New Years in Noosa and surf lessons in Byron Bay.

After two months exploring Australia, I was ready for my next adventure in Southeast Asia.

Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia: January 6 – February 19

My flight to Southeast Asia left out of Sydney and I was psyched. Thailand here I come! Except for, no. I almost missed my flight out of Oz because of a visa issue. Just in the nick of time, I convinced the Aussie flight crew to let me on the plane and for the next six weeks I circled around Southeast Asia.

I wasn’t in love with Thailand—which is funny because I ended up living there later, spending months enjoying Chiang Mai. At the time, however, I had the happy chance to reconnect with an old friend, who I hadn’t realized was also backpacking the region!

Laura and I teamed up and beelined to Laos. We did all the things.

We took the backpacker rite of passage by tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos. Then we moved ourselves into a treehouse for the weekend and zip-lined through the forest as a part of the Gibbon Experience. Although elephant trekking has moral quandaries, we rented a logging elephant for the day and trekked through rural Laos.

Laos stood out as one of my favorite stops on the trip. Filled with gorgeous waterfalls, Buddha caves, and gorgeous karst rocks made for rock climbing, how could I not dream of returning? There was that time I was so sick I nearly died, but even that didn’t taint my love for Laos.

And although SEA is big on the backpacker route, I stepped off of it for a week to volunteer at FLOW in Phnom Penh. Oh, and naturally Angkor Wat, Cambodia was on the list, how could I not!

India: February 19 – March 28

Saying goodbye to Southeast Asia left me a bit heartbroken. Six weeks was not enough time. I could have spent ages longer in the gorgeous forests, rivers, and sleepy towns of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. But Southeast Asia travels had a hard and fast deadline. I needed to meet up with my cousin in India!

Although I had mostly backpacked solo up until this point, my cousin joined me in Mumbai, India. We had intentionally left our two months in India with a blank slate, so we spent our first day in Mumbai plotting a route north and learning or first lessons in Indian scams.

We head to Ahmedabad to visit Gandhi’s ashram and then beelined straight to charming Udaipur renewed our faith that we had chosen a good route. We spent a week there taking it slow, but at the point that I was getting marriage proposals daily, we moved on to Pushkar, a small town with good vibes. We did a camel safari and some hiking.

We then made our way further north to Jaipur for India’s most colorful and joyful holiday: Holi The Festival of Colors. This Hindu festival celebrates the triumph of “good” versus “evil” and involves throwing large quantities of colored powder and water on everyone within reach.

The colors died my skin pink for a week after the celebrations! I was so pink, in fact, that if you look closely at the photos of me at the Taj Mahal the next day, there is a distinct rose hue to my skin.

After the Taj, my cousin and I took the sleeper train to Amritsar to take in the beauty of the Sikh’s holy Golden Temple before catching a bus to McLeod Ganj, home of the Tibetan government-in-exile. McLeod Ganj is a pretty mountain town and it was a very different vibe to spend a week living among the Tibetan community there. We hiked in the gorgeous mountains and even learned how to cook tasty Tibetan momos.

I’d love to have stayed even longer, but we had just a week before our volunteer program in Nepal, so we made our way to Delhi, stopping in Rishikesh to raft on the sacred Ganges River.

Nepal: March 28 – May 19

My two-month volunteer program in Nepal teaching English to young Buddhist monks was a hands-down highlight of my entire year traveling around the world. The young monks were from the poorest regions all over Nepal. They are able to live at the monastery and receive an education, something lacking in many rural areas of Nepal. 

I enjoyed the teaching, and, as is often the case, I undoubtedly learned more than I taught my young monks while living in the charming, rural town of Pharping, Nepal.

My cousin and I wrapped up our time at the monastery in late April and left our quiet life in Pharping. Pharping is an hour+ outside of Kathmandu and it was a peaceful town with many monasteries.

Then began some proper exploring on Nepal’s best things to do, including Chitwan National Park, home to elephants, tigers, and endangered rhinos. From there, we took a bus to Pokhara for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course. It was intense, mind-expanding, and something I’m not likely to do in this lifetime. Pokhara is the gateway to the Annapurna treks, so I teamed up with others from my volunteer program and we hiked in the Himalayas for five days.

Italy and Croatia: May 19 – June 10

By the end of May, the Maoists began heavily protesting in Nepal, so it was an ideal time to leave the developing world and welcome my bestie Jenn to the round-the-world trip.

We met in Milan, Italy and spent a couple of weeks gorging on gelato and exploring. We hiked through Cinque Terre and supported the Leaning Tower of Pisa before landing in Florence.

Then we biked around Tuscany, snapped photos of the David (yes, he is gorgeous), and wandered the Boboli Gardens.

We trained across Italy with a stop in Assisi, before taking the ferry from Ancona, Italy to Split, Croatia.

The ferry to Croatia was a debacle, but that was quickly forgotten as we rented cottage on the island of Brac and relaxed for a week. Then we all explored the Krka waterfalls and the stunning Plitvice Lakes National Park.

Jenn needed to get home, so we parted ways and I continued traveling.

Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia: June 10 – July 3

Sarajevo
Mostar
Ljubljana
Lake Bled

Bidding adieu to Jenn in Zagreb, I moved into Sarajevo, Bosnia and met wonderful couchsurfers there. Sarajevo has made my short-list of my favorite capital cities in the world—it’s small and consumable with just the right touch of fun.

I had food issues in Bosnia traveling as a vegetarian, but also some real non-issues with the Bosnian desserts! The pretty town of Mostar still has visible war damage and the city’s cobbled streets and history are a more sobering look at Bosnia’s war-riddled recent past.

Traveling through Bosnia & Herzegovina was a sleeper favorite from my entire year! I had no idea I would love it so much there.

From Bosnia I moved into Slovenia and couchsurfed with a lovely couple. I fell in love with the sidewalk café culture in the region.

Like Bosnia, I visited Slovenia on a whim and it wowed me. The Soĉa River is among the prettiest rivers in the world, and Ljubljana’s Street Theatre Summer Festival is all kinds of fun. My couchsurfing hosts took me to the Pekel Jama caves on our road trip, and I just enjoyed the unexpectedly pretty country.

Czech Republic and Amsterdam: July 3 – Aug 1

Prague
Cesky Krumlov
Amsterdam

Leaving Slovenia, I trained to the Czech Republic to take in the peaks and churches of Prague. And while Prague is undoubtedly pretty, I love small towns and I camped out for one week in the incredibly cute town of Cesky Krumlov, where I sampled all of the Czech desserts and went rafting down the Vltava River.

After visiting the Czech Republic, I finished out the month of July by house-sitting in Amsterdam for two weeks (for free!). Biking around Amsterdam is the way to go, and I visited dozens of museums, parks, and farmers markets.

England and Scotland: August 1 – Sept 1

An all-day from Amsterdam to London had me crashing on a couch there—I met up with friends that I had last met in India during the Holi festival.

London was pricey and fast-paced—and I had spent a week exploring London on my study abroad years earlier—so I headed north.

Highlights from my month in the UK include hiking through the Lakes District, enjoying Stirling (of the William Wallace fame), and taking in the gorgeous scenery on the Isle of Skye—I loved hiking the Old Man of Storr.

I was traveling at a rapid pace, so it didn’t end there. I caught a bus to Fort Augustus to hunt down Nessie the Loch Ness Monster, and then I might have lost my mind when I hitchhiked in the Cairngorms before landing in Edinburgh.

I loved Edinburgh. A tweetup connected me with locals, which I squeezed in between watching a dozen shows at the annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This festival was a pivotal point on the timeline for my RTW trip. I structured all of my Europe travels to be in Edinburgh in August for the Festival.

Ireland: Sept 1 – Oct 1

The Emerald Isle marked the last leg of my solo round the world trip—I would head home for the holidays for the first time in nearly a year before continuing to travel Central America for another five months.

Sadness and nostalgia were already creeping into me. Seeing the end in sight, I rented a car for my weeks exploring. This was a huge splurge on considering I was aiming for a budget under $20,000 for the entire first year.

After a year of witnessing the most incredible sites in the world, I took it low-key in Ireland, with many things well on the tourist path, and then a lot of things well off of that path. Kissing the Blarney Stone and visiting the Cliffs of Moher are arguably some of the “musts” in Ireland, while Dingle’s Slea Head drive and the Aran Islands are less touristy and filled with incredible Irish music and culture.

With just a week left of my entire first year of world travel, I spent a week driving around Connemara and then hiking in the National Park. My dad sent me money and told me to treat myself to someplace nice, so I stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast in the Wicklow mountains before ending with a day in Dublin at the Guinness Factory and one last chance to hear amazing live music.

After two layovers and a handful of hours, somehow I had arrived back in Florida. Although I had travel fatigue at points during the year, I was also used to constant movement. Landing at my parents house was a shock to the senses and I had serious travel blues and culture shock as I readjusted to life back home, enjoyed the holidays, and then planned my next leg of my route around the world: Central America.

Mexico, Cuba and Belize: January 7 – February 16

As my first round the world travel ended, I realized how well I was able to work from the road. I visited home for the holidays and then set out across Central America. I landed in Cancun as a gateway to meeting up with a travel friend in Cuba.

We started in Havana and then made our way to Trinidad, a colorful city filled with vibrant music, people, and culture.

Louise headed back to the States and I flew back to Cancun, where I explored more of the Yucatan Peninsula before heading south to Belize at the Chetumal border. I had a bad allergic reaction in Belize, so although I found Belizean culture fascinating, I spent a week on Caye Caulker before heading to Guatemala.

Guatemala and Honduras: February 16 – May 18

Guatemala ranks as one of my favorite countries in the world, and it charmed me from the moment I entered on the shuttle from Belize City to Flores. I marveled at the jungle ruins of Tikal and then stomped through caves and waterfalls at Semuc Champey.

It was onward by bus to charming Antigua, where I took a coffee tour, visited a macadamia nut farm, and spent a memorable Semana Santa week learning all about Guatemala’s Easter traditions.

I spent two weeks perfecting my Spanish at lessons in Xela, while volunteering in the rural areas. Then relaxed at Lake Atitlan and did some shopping at Chichicastenango.

I popped over to Honduras to briefly visit Copan Ruinas, and then get my advanced divers certificate on Utila. But then I loved Guatemala so much that I spent my remaining 10 days in the country relaxing on the Rio Dulce.

At that point, I flew to California for a friend’s wedding in Napa, spent the summer catching up with friends who had moved all over the U.S., and then decided to move to Bali by the fall. That set off a whole other adventure living in Thailand and traveling more in Asia as the years passed, as well as a six month solo backpacking trip across Africa.

I’ve now visited more than 70 countries on five continents—find the full list of countries and stories on the site’s destination page, where you can browse by stories or via themes and you can plan your own trip with these world travel resources.

I also have a detailed page dedicated to planning your own round the world itinerary.

You can find my location and travel plans here, as well as my current projects and passions.